Welcome to the Sutton Council Consultation and Engagement Hub

What topics you liked in winter Homefront and what you would like to see more of.
 

The Citizenspace hosted survey elicited 7 responses. The shortened google form survey elicited 19 responses - a total of 26 responses to the Homefront survey.

From the Citizenspace survey, residents indicated articles of interest:

• Housing inspection outcome
• Tenant Satisfaction Measures - mid year results
• Service improvements, lessons learned and You Said, We Did
• Stock Condition Surveys
• Keeping you safe
• Illegal cannabis smoking at home and in communal spaces
• Resident spotlight stories
• Sutton Neighbourhood Watch
• SHP portal
• New homes (Westmead housing story)
• Struggling with debt
• Library of Things

The topics respondents said they want to see more of:

• Leaseholder information
• Learning from complaints or errors
• Dates of upcoming events
• Major works progress
• Repairs List ,what tenants are responsible for and SHP are
• Major Works
• Important numbers that residents and leaseholders may need for emergencies
• Parking

Google survey responses

• 11 respondents said Money and Practical Support
• Five people said Home & Environment: Repairs & Maintenance
• One person said Lifestyle & Wellbeing

Five people gave us permission to add them to our digital Homefront newsletter and have been added to the mailing list.

Article planning
To be addressed in the summer 2026 edition of Homefront and article planning going forward for both printed and digital versions:

• Leaseholder related stories
• Dates of upcoming events: new Community Action Days format coming shortly
• Major Works - we carry a two-page feature on major works and other Assets programmes in each printed Homefront magazine
• Important numbers that residents and leaseholders may need for emergencies: this will be addressed by updating the useful contacts page at the end of each Homefront magazine edition
• More cost of living articles (energy-saving tips, budget-friendly recipes, warm-space locations); Benefits and Grants (updates on Universal Credit, local council grants, or hardship funds); Employment and Skills (local job fairs, free training courses, or CV workshops)
• More on Home & Environment: Repairs & Maintenance (how-to guides for simple fixes e.g unblocking a sink, bleeding a radiator) and clarity on repair timelines; Safety First (fire safety tips, damp/mold prevention, neighbourhood security); Green Living (gardening competitions, recycling tips, or communal garden updates);  Major works problems, Rights & Governance: "You Said, We Did" (showing how tenant feedback has led to specific changes); Policy Updates (changes to tenancy agreements or how rent is calculated); Meet the Team (introducing the housing officers or repairs teams so they aren't just "nameless faces"), more anti-social support, who's responsible for what
• Stories about Lifestyle & Wellbeing: Health (local mental health resources or free exercise classes); Kids’ Corner (puzzles, coloring competitions, school holiday activity guides)

Thank you for taking the time to give us your feedback.

• Thinking about your last interaction with us, how satisfied were you that the staff member fully understood your problem and was supportive?
• How satisfied are you with how SHP keeps you informed about the progress of your service request?
• How clearly did we explain how repairs are prioritised?
• Would you find a mobile phone app useful to report and keep track of your repairs report status?
• What is your primary preferred method for receiving non-urgent community news and general updates?
• What are your preferred social media channels?

We have summarised your feedback and comments. Thank you for taking the time to take part in the survey - we received 14 responses.

On empathy and understanding of our staff (question 1), 9 out of the 14 respondents were either "Fairly dissatisfied" (3 responses) or "Very dissatisfied" (4 responses) with staff understanding and support in their last interaction. Two were "Fairly satisfied" and two were "Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied."

Some of the key issues and suggestions were: 

• Poor Communication and Follow-up: Staff lack notes on problems, jobs are marked as finished when they are not, messages are left for staff who never call back, and follow-up calls promised never happen.
• Inconsistent/Rude Service: One person described the staff member as not knowing what they were doing and repeating questions, making the interaction last over 30 minutes. Another mentioned the need for empathy and not being rude.
• Process Failures: Residents are being passed between SHP and the council, and one tradesman was sent to an old address and refused to go to the new one.

Satisfaction about how SHP keeps you informed about the progress of your service request.

The largest single group, 35.71%, were Very Dissatisfied with how SHP keeps them informed about the progress of their service request.

The remaining respondents were split evenly (21.43% each) across Fairly Satisfied, Neither Satisfied nor Dissatisfied, and Fairly Dissatisfied.

Responding to our question (3) about Repairs Prioritisation Explanation, 35.71% of people who responded were Very dissatisfied, and 0% were Very satisfied.

Some of your suggestions were:

• Proactive Communication: Keep residents updated even without a date, through email or text, to show they are not forgotten
• Clear Information: Send a text or email with the date and proposed time from the moment a repair is reported
• Efficiency: Residents are frustrated with long waiting periods, like one job having four dates over a three-month period, suggesting it would be easier to arrange one visit to get everything done
• Inspection: A surveyor should inspect work both prior to and after completion to ensure correct standards

Communications questions

Mobile phone app: 71.43% of respondents said that they would find a mobile phone app useful to report and keep track of their repairs status.

Preferred Non-Urgent Updates: The top three preferred methods for receiving non-urgent community news and general updates were:

1. Text message (35.7%)
2. Digital Homefront newsletter (21.4%)
3. 'from my housing manager' (14.29%)

Text messaging: We are exploring options to look at ‘broadcasting’ news and other alerts straight to resident’s mobile phones, through a messaging system. The new resident online portal will shortly have an additional feature where residents can log repairs and receive updates on progress and appointments. We will keep all residents updated on how we are progressing.

Our digital Homefront newsletter will be sent out to subscribers regularly each month.

We are preparing a pack for Housing Managers and Independent Living Officers that will have lots of information about support and other services that residents can connect with.

Preferred Social Media Channels: The most used channels were:

1. Facebook (71.43%)
2. Instagram (50%)
3. X (formerly Twitter) (35.71%)
4. YouTube (28.57%)

SHP posts regularly on our Facebook feed, with inspiring resident stories, events and new initiatives. We are building our Instagram profile and posting there regularly too. We use X for more formal announcements, and will look to how we make better use of our YouTube channel to keep residents updated.

Whilst only one respondent said that they don’t use social media/rely on a mobile phone, we are aware that there will be many more residents who are also in the same situation. SHP promotes free digital skills workshops for residents and will look to make more use of that and more use of posters and word of mouth by housing managers, Independent Living Officers and other staff to promote events and news to residents.

Your feedback was insightful and to the point. We recognise these failures, although not a total representation of the positive aspects of our customer service, and have been making changes to staff training. Improving our customer service skills is an ongoing commitment from SHP to give you a better experience when you contact us.

We did: We have been carrying out a review of our Repairs service which will include a series of recommendations to improve our repairs service and how we communicate with you about them. We anticipate knowing the recommendations for changes later in the spring when we will be able to provide residents with clearer information on what we will be doing to improve the service. We know from responses to our mobile phone app question that this is something that largely residents would be supportive of, and which we are investigating now. 

We have just launched a new version of the resident portal which now includes an Apple or Android free app, where residents can upload and share documents with us, manage appointments and more. We hope that residents find this a useful and easy tool to use. While you can currently view your property’s repair history, the option to report new repairs will be coming soon.

What you can do on the new portal
You will be able to:

• Chat with us online and keep track of all your messages in one place
• Exchange documents with us and can send us your documents online
• Easily set up/manage your SHP direct debits 
• Coming soon: Log and manage repair appointments directly

Thank you again for giving us your views.

We asked for your views on our revised Domestic Abuse Policy.
 

Survey results from the revised Domestic Abuse Policy survey showed that we need to do more work to help residents understand the intricacies of policy, as well as tell them about the support and services that we have for victims/survivors, and perpetrators, to understand more about how we can help and support our residents.

• We have refreshed our domestic abuse signposting poster to display in estate and block noticeboards. It now has a scannable QR code that takes you to the domestic abuse page on the SHP website.

• Refreshed our social media posts with imagery and more direct information signposting residents to our information pages.

• Our Domestic Abuse lead is planning a programme of attending resident events over the coming months, to talk to residents in person about the services and support that we offer

• Creation of a short film/video, explaining our support and services for victims/survivors of domestic that are trauma-informed, and dedicated to empowering every survivor. Keep an eye out on our Facebook feed!